Bananas rule, spades drool. End of discussion.

As mentioned, my Wilsons, with their big pretty hex heads, don’t accept banana connections.  Their latest model terminations now do.  And they sell them as expensive replacements.  Supposedly sound somewhat better.  Even my dealer thinks I probably have better things to do with that amount of money.  So not in the cards for me either, though tempting.  Wrench on my friend. Enjoy.

It is true that some can’t avoid spades. My suggestions in those cases are:

• Consider WBT with the spring loaded spades
• Avoid rhodium at all costs (it’s too hard and poor conductor)
• Stick to soft spades, pure copper cores with gold plating for instance
• Avoid brass, again, too hard.
• If your binding post is not captive (most are) use a lock nut

The softer the spade, the more it will squeeze under compression and provide for a tighter fit. The harder the material on the spade and binding post the less likely you are to have a long term reliable connection.

Just the opposite for me. I prefer spades.

I have been told many times by folks more knowledgeable than I that the best sound is from finger tight connection and using more will degrade the sound. I have never gotten curious enough to test this. I tighten just enough to stay on… which means over time they loosen. Hence occasionally one falls off when I straighten the cables.

I have been told many times by folks more knowledgeable than I that the best sound is from finger tight connection and using more will degrade the sound.

I cannot comprehend why that would be, but there is a long long list of stuff in that category.  And maybe that would explain why B&W did not use hex heads for their binding posts.